The Sports Car That Delivers Supercar Thrills Without Supercar Costs
We all want a supercar — until we drive one. True, no one is going to turn down a free V12 exotic to put in their garage, but the reality is that life with one of these specialist machines is not always easy. Need to get some loo roll in your lunch break? There could be better ways than reversing the 1,000+ track weapon out of its dehumidified underground man cave for a drive down to the supermarket. But what if you could have a car that offered a lot of the thrills of a supercar without the headache? Sign me up (and give me a proper supercar too for the weekends)…
Supercars Are A Hard Way To Have Fun
For those of us who don’t have a supercar sitting in our garage, it can be one of the most annoying things to hear (and we don’t mean the engine). Supercar owners (and motoring journos who have access to these types of cars) will often tell you how hard a mid-engine exotic is to live with, and the fact you’d be better off with a [insert cheap yet fun shopping hatchback here]. But in many ways they are right.
Supercars and hypercars are often thinly veiled race cars that owners like to try and drive slowly down upmarket boulevards. Maybe I’m getting old, but being the main feature of someone else’s Instagram account every time I stop at traffic lights can get a bit annoying. Then there are the maintenance costs, with reports of some cars needing almost a thousand bucks worth of spark plugs just to start up. Throw in reliability issues (not so much of a problem with newer supercars) and you have a recipe for a migraine, not the Miami Vice lifestyle.
Toyota Wanted To Create A Mini Supercar For Everyone
Toyota is a company that can seemingly build anything. Whether it is the world’s most recognizable taxi cab, a luxury car that took on the Mercedes S-Class, or just a rally-bred turbocharged hot hatch when everyone said that we should be driving EVs, Toyota pretty much does what it wants. So when Toyota decided to democratize the idea of a supercar for the early ’90s, we all should have taken notice. Who wouldn’t love the idea of a mini exotic, albeit with Toyota’s legendary reliability, a bit of WRC magic, and effortless daily driving capability. It was time to find out.
The MK2 Toyota MR2 Turbo Is a Supercar Disguised As A Sports Car
The original Mk1 MR2 was launched in 1984 and fine-tuned the recipe that was dreamed up by cars such as the Fiat X/19. It was very small, mid-engined, and with fizzy performance, but at the same time reliable and almost as easy to live with as a Corolla. Toyota could have mildly tweaked the MR2 the second time around, but decided on a bold rethink of the car.
Arriving in 1990 (or 1991 in North America), the second-generation Toyota MR2 (SW20) looked the part; less supercar that had shrunk in the wash, more Ferrari B-roll. It had more space (and weight — being 400 pounds heavier) than its predecessor, but it was designed to be a more well-rounded package. Buyers were offered a NA 2.2L 5S-FE engine producing 130 hp, but for real supercar chasing performance, you had to tick the box marked “turbo”.
The MR2 Turbo Used Rally Internals For Supercar Chasing Speed
For the MR2 Turbo, Toyota Engineers used the turbocharged and intercooled 2.0-liter 3S-GTE inline-four that was normally found in the Celica GT-Four/ All-Trac, a homologation special from Group A rally. The twin-cam, 16v unit is good for 200 hp at 6000 rpm and 200 pound-feet of torque at 3200, which was pretty impressive for the early ’90s.
The only problem was, perhaps the MR2 was too feisty for its own good. There were reports of the first Rev1 cars being snatchy, dramatic oversteer — not something you needed if you’d just upgraded your hot hatch with no experience of a mid-engined turbocharged car — but Toyota was quick to address the handling. The Rev2 cars were given larger wheels and revised suspensions, helping to calm the set-up somewhat. But that didn’t mean they were slow.
Here’s Why The MR2 Is The Perfect Mini Supercar
At this point, a lot of people might point out the fact that a boosted four-banger doesn’t make a supercar. The Lotus Emira might have something to say about that, but it’s a valid point nonetheless. But it turned out that the MR2 Turbo did actually possess supercar-rivaling speed. One report quotes Toyota’s own claims that the MR2 Turbo hits 60 mph in 5.9 seconds, with the quarter mile covered in 14.3 seconds. The same magazine clocked a 1991 Ferrari 348ts to 60 mph in six seconds, and that car has a 296-hp V8 in the middle.
The MR2 Is A Hassle-Free Alternative To Supercars
Get a good one and the SW20 MR2 should be a pretty easy-going companion. The annual repair cost is $439, says Repairpal, with many basic jobs costing less than 100 bucks. You won’t need to take it to some far-flung specialist shop either; Any decent Toyota expert should do. Repairpal puts the annual repair cost of a Porsche Boxster at $952, by the way. Hagerty sums up the MR2 Turbo like this: “Among most mid-engine models, you will need to sacrifice reliability or performance to get a good deal. That’s not the case with the second-generation Toyota MR2 (SW20). Where else can you get supercar-tier performance, legendary build quality, and everyday practicality, all packaged in a timeless design?”
You’ll Need To Move Quickly Though If You Want One
The MR2 Turbo is still fairly affordable, but prices have been growing. Hagerty shows around a $20,000 increase since 2019, with excellent end-of-the-run ’95 Turbos coming in at $58,200. Interestingly, the price increase is on the same lines as a Ferrari 348, which is now more than $100,000. Early 1991 and ’92 Turbos will cost around 40 grand, but a 1992 car in good, but less than immaculate, condition will cost $22,100. The lowest #2 value is for a 1992 base MR2 with 130 hp is $23,200.
Hagerty says you will pay around 15% less for an auto MR2, and a couple of grand extra for one with a factory limited-slip. Having a look through the classifieds, you can still get a decent-looking Turbo for less than $20K if you shop around. For this kind of money, it’s hard to think of anything for the money that offers most of the thrills of a supercar, with the real world usability of a runaround hatchback.
Sources: Hagerty.com; Repairpal.com
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